Streams In The Desert

August 18

Alone

The Lord alone was guiding him, no foreign god was with him.—Deut 32:12 NET

“The hill was steep, but cheered along the wayBy converse sweet, I mounted on the thoughtThat so it might be till the height was reached;But suddenly a narrow winding pathAppeared, and then the Master said, ’My child,Here thou wilt safest walk with Me alone.’

“But oh! so tenderly He led me onAnd up, and spoke to me such words of cheer,Such secret whisperings of His wondrous love,That soon I told Him all my grief and fear,And leaned on His strong arm confidingly.

“And then I found my footsteps quickened,And light ineffable, the rugged wayIllumined, such light as only can be seenIn close companionship with God.

“A little while, and we shall meet againThe loved and lost; but in the rapturous joyOf greetings, such as here we cannot know,And happy song, and heavenly embraces,And tender recollections rushing backOf pilgrim life, methinks one memoryMore dear and sacred than the rest, shall rise,

“And we who gather in the golden streets,Shall oft be stirred to speak with grateful loveOf that dark day when Jesus bade us climbSome narrow steep, leaning on Him alone.”“There is no high hill but beside some deep valley.There is no birth without a pang.”—Dan Crawford